Jerry O'Neil's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
On The Ballot: Running, Non-partisan for Justice of the Supreme Court (MT) - Seat 3
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This candidate has responded to a Political Courage Test in a previous election. As a continued effort to provide the American public with factual information on candidates running for public office, these archived responses are made available here.
Montana State Legislative Election 2014 Political Courage Test
| Pro-life | a) Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| Yes | b) Should abortions be illegal after the first trimester of pregnancy? | ||
| c) Should abortion be legal when the pregnancy resulted from incest or rape? | |||
| d) Should abortion be legal when the life of the woman is endangered? | |||
| Yes | e) Do you support requiring parental notification before an abortion is performed on a minor? | ||
| f) Do you support requiring parental consent before an abortion is performed on a minor? | |||
| Yes | g) Do you support the prohibition of public funds for abortion procedures? | ||
| Yes | h) Do you support the prohibition of public funds for organizations that perform abortions? | ||
| c) Any time an abortion is allowed on account of incest or rape, the rapist should be prosecuted. d) All births and all abortions endanger the life of the mother. We need to be more specific on how endangered her life need be before it justifies killing the baby. f) If the abortion request results from incest you would need a court option to bypass the perpetrator and to put the perpetrator in jail. | |||
1) State Spending:Using the key, indicate what state funding levels (#1-6) you support for the following general categories. Select one level per category; you may use a number more than once.2) State Taxes:Using the key, indicate what state tax levels (#1-6) you support for the following general categories. Select one level per category; you may use a number more than once.
| Maintain Status | a) Education (higher) | ||
| Maintain Status | b) Education (K-12) | ||
| Maintain Status | c) Environment | ||
| Slightly Decrease | d) Health care | ||
| Slightly Decrease | e) Law enforcement/corrections | ||
| Maintain Status | f) Transportation/infrastructure | ||
| Maintain Status | g) Welfare | ||
| h) Other or expanded categories: | |||
| Maintain Status | a) Alcohol taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | b) Cigarette taxes | ||
| Slightly Decrease | c) Corporate taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | d) Gas/Oil taxes | ||
| Greatly Decrease | e) Property taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | f) Income taxes (low-income families) | ||
| Slightly Decrease | g) Income taxes (mid-income families) | ||
| Slightly Decrease | h) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| i) Other or expanded principles: | |||
a) Do you support limits on the following types of contributions for state candidates?
| 1) Individual | |||
| 2) Political Action Committee | |||
| 3) Corporate | |||
| 4) Political Party | |||
| No | b) Should candidates for state office be encouraged to meet voluntary spending limits? | ||
| c) Do you support requiring full and timely disclosure of campaign finance information? | |||
| Yes | d) Do you support the use of an independent AND/OR bipartisan commission for redistricting? | ||
| e) Do you support requiring a government-issued photo identification in order to vote at the polls? | |||
| I believe members of the public should be allowed to join together (or incorporate) and pool their money to help the candidate of their choice get elected. They should not have to call themselves members of the press before being allowed to compose a video or rent billboards for their candidate's benefit. e) I support requiring an authenticated photo identification in order to vote. This identification should not need to be issued by the government. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support capital punishment for certain crimes? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support alternatives to incarceration for certain non-violent offenders, such as mandatory counseling or substance abuse treatment? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support legalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana? | ||
| Yes | d) Should a minor accused of a violent crime be prosecuted as an adult? | ||
| e) Should a minor who sends sexually-explicit or nude photos by cell phone face criminal charges? | |||
| Yes | f) Do you support the enforcement of federal immigration laws by state and local police? | ||
| No | g) Do you support increased driving regulations? | ||
| c) Justice Scalia, in Gonzales v Raich, showed his willingness to use his dislike of marijuana to take away all of our "states' rights" as guaranteed by the Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. I am not willing to let that happen. e) A minor should not be prosecuted for sending photos by cell phone when those photos are no more sexually explicit than what is seen on television. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support reducing government regulations on the private sector? | ||
| No | b) Do you support increased state funding for job-training programs that re-train displaced workers? | ||
| No | c) Do you support expanding access to unemployment benefits? | ||
| No | d) Do you support providing financial incentives to the private sector for the purpose of job creation? | ||
| No | e) Do you support government spending as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| No | f) Do you support providing direct financial assistance to homeowners facing foreclosure? | ||
| No | g) Do you support an increase of the minimum wage? | ||
| b) I favor apprenticeship programs by private industry. c) I like the idea of being paid while idle, but it will destroy our society. d) Government should not be choosing which businesses succeed and which fail. Let them thrive on their own merits. e) When government taxes Peter to fund Paul, it does not promote economic growth overall. f) It is best to leave financing to the private market. g) Raising the minimum wage will hurt the poorest among us who need jobs, including, young adults on the Indian reservations, young adults who age out of foster care and ex-convicts. | |||
| No | a) Do you support the national Common Core State Standards initiative? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support a merit pay system for teachers? | ||
| c) Is the tenure process for public school teachers producing effective teachers? | |||
| Yes | d) Should parents be allowed to use vouchers to send their children to any school? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support state funding for charter schools? | ||
| f) Do you support the state government providing college students with financial aid? | |||
| g) Should illegal immigrants who graduate from Montana high schools be eligible for in-state tuition at public universities? | |||
| c) Many of Montana's teachers are effective, but I don't know if that is promoted by our tenure process. f) I would like to see college students' financial aid follow the student so it would increase competition between our colleges. | |||
| No | a) Do you support state funding for the development of alternative energy? | ||
| No | b) Do you support state funding for the development of traditional domestic energy sources (e.g. coal, natural gas, oil)? | ||
| No | c) Do you support state funding for improvements to Montana's energy infrastructure? | ||
| No | d) Do you support state funding for open space preservation? | ||
| e) Do you support government regulations of greenhouse gas emissions? | |||
| a), b) & c) I believe our free market system will best develop our energy sources, distribution and infrastructure. I believe non-governmental organizations, such as the Nature Conservancy, should fund open space preservation. e) I support government regulations on pollution, including fluorocarbon emissions, and support the use of caution on the regulation of CO2 emissions. | |||
| No | a) Do you support restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns? | ||
| No | b) Should background checks be required on gun sales between private citizens at gun shows? | ||
| Yes | c) Should citizens be allowed to carry concealed guns? | ||
| No | d) Should a license be required for gun possession? | ||
| e) Other or expanded principles: | |||
| No | a) Do you support a universally-accessible, publicly-administered health insurance option? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support expanding access to health care through commercial health insurance reform? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support interstate health insurance compacts? | ||
| No | d) Do you support Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act? | ||
| No | e) Do you support requiring individuals to purchase health care insurance? | ||
| No | f) Do you support monetary limits on damages that can be collected in malpractice lawsuits? | ||
| Yes | g) Do you support allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana to their patients for medicinal purposes? | ||
| I believe we need to do away with Montana's "Certificate of Need" requirement of state permission to initiate or expand health care facilities and services. We need to allow providers of health care to advance their workers through in-house apprenticeship programs from janitor to CNA, to LPN, to RN, to Physicians' Assistant and Advanced Practice RN, and eventually to physician or manager of the facility. Health care organizations with sufficient assets at risk should be allowed to use any employee they choose to do any job the organization wants done. | |||
| No | a) Do you support same-sex marriage? | ||
| b) Should same-sex couples be allowed to form civil unions? | |||
| No | c) Do you support the inclusion of sexual orientation in Montana's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| No | d) Do you support the inclusion of gender identity in Montana's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| If re-elected, I likely will introduce a bill to allow gay landlords to reserve their rentals for gay tenants. The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution allows them to associate with whom they want to associate with and not to associate with whom they do not want to associate with. | |||
| 1) I want to protect and empower families in Montana and their support groups, including our religious, fraternal and private organizations. 2) I believe free countries are our best answer for world peace because free countries provide wealth; wealthy people desire education; educated people have less children; thereby people in free countries are less likely to go to war because of hunger and over population. We need to export freedom around the world. 3) Montana needs to provide its citizens what protection it can provide in case the United States defaults on its $18 Trillion national debt. |
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